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SITEKI – Over 40 Lubombo Central High School pupils were on Wednesday morning sent back home for wearing inappropriate uniform.
About 20 of the pupils visited the Siteki Times offices to voice out their concerns. A pupil, who spoke on behalf of the others, said they had been sent back by the school’s Head teacher, Pilate Vilane, for not wearing the appropriate uniform.
The majority of the pupils are in Form IV and II classes. They claimed that the head teacher sent them back for wearing Grasshopper shoes, yet the school’s administrator deemed them as inappropriate. The pupils felt the head teacher should have warned them to attend school wearing the proper uniform and not to make them miss out on lessons. “Some went home and we decided that we should come to the Times office to voice our concerns because we felt that we are being illtreated as pupils.
Proper
“A black Grasshopper shoe is appropriate, but we were told it is not and we should go back home and wear the proper uniform. We are missing out on lessons as learning is continuing,” said the pupil.
Called to shed light on the matter, Vilane acknowledged having sent the pupils back home to wear proper uniform. The head teacher said the pupils were aware of the appropriate uniform they were supposed to wear when coming to the school. He said upon their admission to the school, the prospectus stipulated clearly the uniform they were supposed to wear. “They are just disobeying the rules of the school. They were not in proper uniform and I told them to go back home and dress properly,” he said.
Meanwhile, in the year 2000, parliamentarians instructed the Education minister to issue a directive that schoolgirls wear uniforms that are knee-long or below, starting from 2001. Nothing was said about Grasshopper shoes. Further, former Senator Majahenkhaba Dlamini is on record having moved a motion that the minister issues the directive to school heads so that schoolgirls above 10 years be compelled to wear knee-long uniforms.